New
products and services are the lifeblood of any industry.
Businesses that constantly innovate thrive - those that don't die.
Free from the large corporate culture, small businesses are the
perfect incubators of innovation. Yet given the enormous R&D expenditures
of large corporations and their armies of patent attorneys, small
businesses are at a distinct disadvantage.
The congressionally mandated Small Business Innovative Research
(SBIR) program can help level the playing field.

Every
year the SBIR program awards about $2.0 billion to small businesses
with innovative ideas for new products. The SBIR program
can be a key component of your business's financing plan without
diluting your ownership and control. For this reason the SBIR program
is very competitive - only about 1 out of 8 Phase I submissions
receive awards. Often small businesses don't know which opportunities
they should pursue, they have no experience with the SBIR program
or writing SBIR proposals, and they are up against "professional
SBIR" companies who do nothing more than feed off of SBIR funding
without ever commercializing their "innovations".

Centurion
Technology was founded to help small companies with truly innovative
ideas succeed. We will help you identify the best proposal
opportunities as well partnering opportunities. We provide proposal
coaching, proposal writing and proposal critiquing services. We
also coach you on how to make your business and research teams more
competitive.We can significantly improve your probability of winning,
and provide a significant return on investment. We also work on
shared-risk, shared-reward basis. We only get our full fee if you
win!

It
all starts with finding the right opportunity. Many small
businesses have little more than a great idea. Others have core
technology, but are in the dark when it comes to matching it with
government R&D needs. We spend hundreds of hours each year pouring
over SBIR and non-SBIR solicitations, attending conferences, following
trends in government research, analyzing government technology needs,
and monitoring relevant legislative initiatives. This level of effort
is required to fully capitalize on sponsored research opportunities,
yet it is simply not cost effective for a small business. We offer
an opportunity identification and business development service.
First we analyze your ideas, technology, and capabilities. Then
as we review each new development and solicitation, we look for
opportunities that fit your business. We then generate a report
of opportunities that are relevant to your business as well as analysis
of potential barriers to success. Potential opportunities are not
limited to government research contracts, but may also include commercial
opportunities and partnership opportunities.

Once
the right opportunity has been found, the small business must produce
a compelling proposal. Often small businesses have no
experience with the SBIR program or writing SBIR proposals, and
they are up against "professional SBIR" companies who do nothing
more than feed off of SBIR funding without ever commercializing
their "innovations". Not only are SBIR awards very competitive,
writing a proposal is a significant endeavor. Proposal writing is
particularly time consuming for first-time proposal writers. One
attractive option is to outsource this work to experienced professional
who will likely lower the cost of producing a proposal and increase
your chances of winning. Consider historical national
average success rates - 15% of Phase I proposal are selected for
funding and 40% of Phase II proposals are selected. Given the historical
national averages, only 6% of attempts result in Phase I & II awards,
9% result in Phase I awards only, and 85% result in no award. This
is not a very promising picture. Under the national historical averages,
the mean Phase I proposal will eventually bring $60,000 in Phase
I & II funding the small business (assuming $100,000 Phase I and
$750,000 Phase II awards). Improving your
probability of Phase I success will have a significant return on
investment. Improving your odds by a single percentage point will
improve your expected outcome by $4,000!!!